Hogwarts Academy
by not really sane fairy
Summary: Lily Evans moves to a town of Hogsmeade, where she starts attending the Hogwarts Academy. But when she moves around so much, is it a good idea to make friends with the Marauders? Jily Muggle AU. Open to title suggestions!
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome to my first multichapter fic - Hogwarts Academy. If you have any good name suggestions, I'd love to hear them, because this just seems so cliché. Many thanks to my beta, BookWorm77071. And now, proceed to enjoy!  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

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As Lily Evans walked into the area of Hogwarts Academy, she couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. Who wouldn't, if they just started out at a new school? But this wasn't exactly a new experience to Lily. As it was, this was her... what, thirteenth school? Yeah, thirteenth is right. Ever since her mum died, her dad could never stay in the same place for a long time and Lily and her sister Petunia were both victims to his travelling fever. This year was Lily's senior year and she couldn't wait to go to uni and find actual friends she wouldn't have to abandon after six months. Of course, the first few times she moved she wanted to find a few friends, but after a couple of times it was just too heartbreaking and then she always tried to stay out of the social circles.

In the spirit of "first things first", Lily made her way through the half empty halls – it was still fairly early - to the secretary's office to sort out the technical stuff. Once that was out of the way, she went outside again to get a feel of sun and wind on her skin while she still could. She settled herself on a bench close to the entrance and pulled out her sketchbook. Lily liked to draw, but she hadn't discovered that until her sixth year, when she signed up for art class just for the kicks but found out she really enjoyed it. Since then she always signed up for random classes and extra-curricular activities and so far had tried being pretty much everything: artist, computer geek, journalist, eco-freak, marching band player, actress, singer, nerd, chess player, cheerleader, football, and basketball player... hell, she was even a troublemaker. She has always liked the philosophy of Renaissance; that one should be well versed all around.

As Lily was drawing, she heard a loud cough and her eyes snapped up. A handsome boy with shoulder long black hair and grey eyes was standing in front of her and smirking. Being subjected to bullies before, she guessed she had "invaded his property" and mentally braced herself for the slew of insults that would inevitably fly her way. What she heard was not at all what she expected.

"Would you mind terribly putting those oh-so-fabulous legs of yours off that bench, sweetheart?"

Lily blinked. To say she resented flirts would be an understatement of the century. "As a matter of fact, yes I would. It's rather comfortable like this," she said.

He didn't seem to be put off by her statement, on the contrary. "Come on, now, Red, you've got to know you're violating school rules doing that. Just trying to save your pretty face from detention, that's all."

She scowled. Honestly, a minute with this guy and she was ready to chuck him off a cliff. "Don't call me Red. How d'you like if I called you Black, hm?"

He chuckled. "Well, considering it's my surname, I'd say I'd be perfectly fine with it. But I'd rather you called me Sirius. I want to be on first-name basis with all the people in this wonderful place, you know?" he said.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Nah, I think I'm fine with Black."

Sirius Black gasped dramatically and held his heart. "No! Don't do this to me, my fair lady! I shall never recover from this ordeal! Oh, whatever can I do to change your mind?"

She let out her own chuckle. What a drama queen. "Well, you can promise not to call me Red," Lily suggested.

He curtsied. "Your wish is my command. However, I do not know how to address to you now. Somehow I think you wouldn't appreciate me calling you hot stuff," Sirius said.

Lily smiled. Perhaps he wasn't just a brainless flirting machine… "I'm Lily Evans. Nice to make your acquaintance, Sirius _Black._"She accentuated Black but threw a grin his way to let him know she was just teasing.

He tsked, but his eyes were smiling. "And here I thought we would become best of friends at this point, _Evans. _Never mind that. I shall try and I shall succeed. How 'bout we start by showing you around the place, eh?"

When Lily looked at her watch, she saw the class would start soon. "We've got ten minutes left. We should go, just in case."

Sirius raised an eyebrow and said, "No offence, but you don't seem to be the meticulous sort."

Lily could see where he was coming from. After all, she did refuse to put her legs off the bench and was cheeky with him. In fact, she was meticulous to a T, but then her pride decided to make an appearance. "Nah, I just wanna lure people into false sense of security and then strike."

He smiled mischievously. "I like the way you think, Evans. If you would follow me."

As they went, Sirius told her about various do's and don'ts about the school he thought she should know. "If you can't open your locker, just beat the bugger until it succumbs. And do not, under any circumstances, order beef soup at lunch." Lily looked at him questioningly, but Sirius just shook his head. "Don't ask. It's for better if you don't know." Lily opened her mouth to argue, but then shut it. They didn't call the weekly Monday special at her previous school The Scavenger Hunt for nothing…

As they reached the classroom, Sirius opened the door for her. Rolling her eyes, Lily figured it was pointless to argue with him and entered the classroom. Tapping to her knowledge of being a new kid, she continued to walk forward. If she stopped in the doorway, students would know someone new was there, so she tried to blend with the crowd. Sirius, however, would have none of that. "Lilyflower, you're going in the wrong direction, darling!" He grabbed her wrist and started dragging her towards the windows, where a group of guys and girls was sitting and talking. When they heard Sirius' voice, they all looked in their direction and immediately started looking at her with interest. When they reached their destination, Lily tore her hand out of Sirius' grasp and glared at him. "Why'd you think calling me Lilyflower was a good idea, I'll never know." Sirius grinned at her. "Well, since you don't want me to call you Red, I had to make up another nickname, hadn't I?" Lily just stared at him.

One of the girls, a curly-haired blonde with big blue eyes shook her head. "Don´t bother with him, he's not completely all right in the head. He calls me M&amp;M for example." She smiled at Lily. "Hi, I'm Marlene McKinnon, nice to meet you."

Lily smiled back. "Lily Evans; likewise." She shook hands with Marlene as she introduced her to the rest of the gang. "This is Alice Fortescue." A sweet looking girl with round face, shoulder long light brown hair and brown eyes waved and smiled shyly at her. "Karen Hooch." A muscular, tanned girl with short dark brown hair and blue-almost-grey eyes nodded at her. "Emmeline Vance." Girl with straight blond hair, pale skin and freckles that contrasted with her surprisingly dark eyes wiggled her fingers. "Hey." Marlene continued with Remus Lupin, who had neatly trimmed and combed his light brown hair and had this 'excellent student' vibe. Next was Peter Pettigrew, who blushed when introduced, with blond hair and watery blue eyes. "And James Potter." He had very messy jet black hair, hazel eyes with rectangular glasses. There was something about him she couldn't quite put her finger on, but she didn't think much of it. He looked at her for a few seconds, offered her a lopsided grin and ruffled his hair (which made him look like he'd been spit out of a tornado). "So, Lily Evans, was it?"

"Yep."

"So, how do you like Hogwarts so far?"

Lily looked around; taking in the class and people she had been introduced to. "So far, so good, I guess. The residents can sometimes be less than pleasant, though," she said whilst nudging Sirius.

Marlene smiled widely. "I think this will be a start of a beautiful friendship."

Sirius huffed. "Congratulations, Skittles, you just sentenced yourself to a day without my stellar sense of humour. No dirty jokes for you today."

"What a pity," Marlene drawled sarcastically. However, James and Karen did not appear to share the sentiment. "McKinnon, apologize," they commanded at once.

She snorted. "Yeah, right, that'll happen." She then turned to Lily. "Well, don't just stand there, sit down!" That left Lily confused. She looked around and saw most of the seats were already taken. "Uh, where exactly?"

Marlene patted the top of her desk. "Here, of course! There's no extra seat here, so you'll have to wait until McGonagall comes and then ask her to go to basement for an extra one."

"Alright then." Lily hopped on Marlene's desk and said, "Well, continue with whatever you have been doing before, I guess. I'll catch up sooner or later."

Unfortunately for Lily, Emmeline had other ideas. "I don't think so. We have way more important things to talk about now. So, where are you from and why did you move here?" she started to interrogate Lily.

She scratched her had. She was not giving them her entire history since quite a lot of people were listening, so she decided to give them a censored version. "I came from Westonville, and I moved here because my father wanted to open a smoothie and ice cream parlour here in Hogsmeade," Lily said.

Alice's eyes shined in that moment. "Oh, yes, I know. This old shack close to my place has been reconstructed recently. It has a huge ice cream on top. Maple Street 5129, am I right?" she said.

Lily shrugged her shoulders. "I've no idea, honestly. Haven't been there yet."

Remus frowned. "Don't you wanna know how will your dad's new restaurant look like?" he said.

Oh, if they had any idea. "I've seen it, only in pictures, though, but still. And it's a long way from my house, so… " Okay, that was a lie. But she wouldn't spill her guts about that, not yet. Luckily, most of the crew seemed satisfied with her response.

Lily decided she should steer the conversation out of dangerous waters. "Okay, my turn. So, what are the teachers around here like?"

James and Sirius grinned at each other. "Oh, they love us all," they said in unison. The rest laughed sardonically.

"If by love, you mean totally hate you and will throw a rave the day you graduate, then sure, they love you," Marlene quipped and everyone else was nodding their heads and murmuring agreements.

Sirius butted in. "When you go and say hi to good ol' Minnie, do tell her she looks especially fetching today, will you?"

Lily raised her eyebrows. "But what if she won't look fetching?" she said.

Sirius vehemently shook his head. "She always looks fetching. Minnie doesn't follow trends, she sets them," he said.

"What on earth does that mean?"

James threw her a cheeky grin. "Wait and see. We don't want to spoil the surprise, after all."

Lily gave up trying to understand what the hell was going on at that point. She soon understood, as shortly after Professor McGonagall walked into a classroom wearing… a hideous old-fashioned red tartan jacket and ankle long black dress. Oh.

While the students were scrambling to their seats, Lily could swear she heard a whisper of, "Ten quid she'll chicken out." They thought she would chicken out, didn't they? Oh, this was going to be fun.

Going over to McGonagall's - or Minnie's, as boys had named her – table, she handed her the papers McGonagall – oh, screw it, Minnie was way shorter anyway – was supposed to sign, she smiled nicely and introduced herself. "Hello, my name is Lily Evans."

Minnie looked at her over the rims of her glasses as she sized her up, and finally smiled. "Hello, Miss Evans, I'm Professor Minerva McGonagall and I'll be teaching you Maths this term." Lily took the paper, smiled back and dropped the bomb. "Oh, and Sirius Black sends his regards and says you look smokin' hot today," she said trying to keep a straight face.

The class burst in laughter, as Sirius tried to defend himself. "Hey, I didn't say that! I said you look especially fetching!"

Lily waved her hand in the air dismissively. "Semantics."

This caused the class to laugh even harder, if possible. McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose. "Very well, then, Miss Evans, why don't you go to storage for a desk, since we don't have a place to sit you?" she said.

"I'll go with her!" James offered his help enthusiastically, a bit too much. When he realised that, he added, "You, know, so she won't get lost or anything…" he added sheepishly as girls exchanged knowing looks.

Lily smiled. Good, she made a nice first impression, if James' reaction was anything to go by.

James, just like Sirius before, opened the door for her. She flashed him a smile and went out. Once she was out, he shut the door and looked at her with intense expression. "That," he pointed at the door, "Was the most amazing thing I've seen in a very long time."

She smirked. "To be honest, I mostly did it because I heard someone say I wouldn't do it."

He grinned back at her. "Yeah, that was Sirius. He thinks good looking girls don't have it in them to be troublemakers." He motioned her to follow him.

"In that case, I shouldn't tell him how I got six weeks of detention in one day, should I?" Maybe Lily should've expected that dropped jaw.

"Six… weeks? Six weeks? Damn! That beats our record by two weeks! What on earth did you do?" James said, gobsmacked.

Lily snorted. "Yeah, and you'll faint. Sorry, not risking that."

James glared at her, and Lily just raised her eyebrow. After a few seconds, he sighed. "Guess you're right."

After a few seconds of silence, he tried his luck again. "The least significant offence?"

"Not happening!" Lily said in a sing-song voice.

The answer had not satisfied James at all. "Just you wait; I'll get it out of you," he told her.

"A girl can't spill all her secrets at once, now, can she?" This was fun; it was long since she bantered with someone like this.

"I have always been known as a very persuasive person." James shot right back.

"Even if you are, your powers will never measure up to the ones of Lily Evans, the Locked Book of Secrets."

They continued like this all the way to the storage back to class and even then they still had things to talk about. Granted, most of that time was spent bickering about superpowers, but it was incredibly entertaining all the same. They were sending notes to each other back and forth and Lily couldn't help but think how this was a terrible mistake.

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**AN: Please review, it'd be great to have some feedback!  
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	2. Chapter 2

**And the next chapter. Stupid muses thinking they can just run away from me like that. Thanks to my Beta, BookWorm77071. Check out her story Sovereigh Affairs, if you have time. It's a Jily Muggle AU and really awesome fic.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

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The next class was Geography, where Lily managed to avoid Emmeline's interrogation by claiming she wasn't good in Geography. She wasn't so lucky in History, however.

The history professor was probably – no, scratch that – definitely the most boring professor Lily ever had the displeasure of encountering. Because of that, History was deemed by the entire student body as an opportunity to catch up on homework or gossip.

It turned out that the girls – bar Karen, plus Sirius – had made a questionnaire of sorts on Geography and now proceeded to give it to her – very pompously, but then again, Sirius did the giving.

It went like this:

_What's your full name?_

_What's your address?_

_When's your birthday and how old are you?_

_What's your family like?_

_List your three of your good and three of your bad features._

_List three things you like and three you dislike._

_List your pet peeves._

And so on.

Lily answered like this:

_Lily no-way-in-hell-I'm-telling-you-my-middle-name Evans._

_Yeah, and the next time I'll look out of the window I'll see strangers concealed in shadows. No thanks._

_January 30, 1997. You do the math._

_I live with my father and my sister. He's a successful business man who has a chain of smoothie shops open all around the country and she'll probably be the waitress in one of them until she dies._

_Cheeky, adventurous, loyal, impatient, one heck of a slob, raging when upset._

_Drawing, running, chocolate, shopping for Christmas, oranges, working in a restaurant._

_And telling you what exactly ticks me off? Not happening._

After she turned in the questionnaire, they spent at least fifteen minutes dissecting her answers and Lily spent at least fifteen minutes trying to listen in on their conversation, but Sirius and Marlene had successfully thwarted every attempt.

After they finished, the bell rang, signalising the lunch break. They made their way to lunch hall and took a fairly well positioned table, which made Lily feel very uncomfortable.

Alice seemed to sense her discomfort. "You okay, Lily?" she asked, concerned.

Others looked at her and she squirmed even more. "Uh, yeah, sure, why wouldn't I be?"

Sirius snorted. "I don't know, maybe because you look like a deer in headlights?" he drawled, with his mouth not exactly empty – unfortunately for Remus, who sat opposite him.

"I always look like a deer in headlights," Lily said, trying to avoid the original question.

Alice had a skeptical expression on her face and was just about to say something, but Marlene interrupted her. "Nice try, Lily, but you still have to tell us why do you look like you want to puke."

Damn. "All right, all right, I'll tell you. It's just…" Lily really wanted to run away at this point. "You know, the new kids aren't supposed to sit with the popular kids…"

James looked incredulous. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Six years worth of moving every other term?" Lily said, looking quite grim.

Emmeline cut in. "Wait, what? You moved every other term for the past six years?"

"Uh…" Lily kind of sort of wanted to slam her head into her lunch. "Yeah."

Silence reigned after her words as everyone glanced at his or her neighbour and then back at Lily with sympathetic looks on their faces. Lily saw, then hid her face in her hands and tried to lighten the atmosphere a bit. "No! Not the sympathetic looks!" she pretended she was a villain whose opponent used his most potent attack on her.

That earned her a round of chuckles. Thank God. Lily really didn't think she could handle all that emotional manure. "Really, guys, it's okay. I've gotten used to it already," she said, trying to salvage what she could.

The gang didn't like what it heard, but respected her wishes nonetheless and didn't press the issue. After a pretty long time, Karen decided to break the silence. "So, what are other schools like?"

Lily contemplated her answer – after all, she had a lot of experience – when a small group of students came to their table. The one who seemed to be the leader, with shoulder long, very bright blonde hair and piercing grey eyes, sized her up and then turned to James with a derogatory scowl on his face. "I know that you like to play the good guy, Potter, but consorting yourself with the likes of her is simply beyond my level of understanding."

Sirius growled and was just about to say something equally nasty, but James beat him to it. "I know that you like to play the bad guy, Malfoy, but this is even beneath you; coming here harassing people and not even bothering to get to know them," he all but spat at Malfoy.

"What's to get to know? One look at her and I can tell she's another one of your charity cases. Careful, Potter, you may be rich, but associating with people like her will not exactly put you on the pedestal." Malfoy said in a tone that sent shivers up Lily's spine.

This time James did not stop Sirius from speaking. "Take your crap and leave, Malfoy. We're not interested in hearing any of it."

Malfoy just raised his eyebrow. "Too bad no one asked you, Black." His – henchmen? – all laughed at that point. Lily just rolled her eyes. He actually had people to laugh whenever he said something funny, or, in this case, something that was supposed to be funny.

This time it was Marlene who spoke up. "Now, I'm sure you remember what happened the last time you didn't leave when we told you to. Unless you'd like a repeat of that performance, I suggest you scram," she said whilst casually inspecting her nails.

One of Malfoy's gorillas piped up. "Uh, maybe we should go…" Others looked frightened as well. Sensing defeat, Malfoy retreated, but not without a parting shot. "Don't you worry, your little popularity crew won't last for long. Enjoy the fame while you can." And with that, he left.

After a minute or so, Lily finally found the courage to ask, "What on Earth was that about?" No one said anything, but after a while James took pity on her. "Don't mind him, he's just your average prejudiced bully," he said, with an apologising tinge to his voice.

Lily frowned. "And what exactly is he bullying me for? I mean, this was obviously not a case of picking on a new kid."

Sirius gripped the cutlery he was holding so tight his knuckles turned white. "Answer's quite simple; you don't look rich," he snarled with hatred Lily thought it was impossible for him to have.

Lily saddened. It didn´t matter that she went through the routine more times than ever necessary, she still felt like one of the petals of the flower that was her soul just wilted. "Oh, that. That's alright, no biggie. I'm used to it by now." She said, trying to feign nonchalance but failing.

This time Marlene decided to lighten the atmosphere. "So, Lily, wanna hear about how we disposed of that scumbag the last time?"

Lily nodded enthusiastically and Marlene regaled her with a tale of four boys with a very unique sense of revenge. The boys in question interrupted here and there and explained finer points of a prank to her to which Lily only responded with a roll of the eye. After the storytime was over, Sirius couldn't contain himself for longer than few seconds and practically assaulted Lily.

"Would you care to explain why were you rolling your eyes, Ginge? We were trying so hard to introduce you to the world of pranks and you dare to rebuff or advances like that? How can you even live with yourself?" he said like Lily committed some sort of treachery. She pointed that out to him.

If Lily thought his previous outburst was bad, she had another thing coming. "But you DID commit a treachery! Of a highest kind I might add. You act like… " At this point Lily thought it prudent to stick her fingers into her ears and simply wait out the storm. It took Sirius only ten seconds to realize she wasn't paying attention and after he did, he was staring at Lily as if she kicked his puppy.

"Please refrain from another fit like that in the future, Mr. Black. It's rather unbecoming of someone of your status as a student in a last year." Lily didn't know why she said what she said, but it was effective either way since Sirius straightened up and tipped his imaginary hat with words, "Will do, Miss!"

Lily smiled, satisfied with herself. She was just about to dig in her meal, when Emmeline had a flare up on her own. "You mean to tell me that when you want Black to shut up, all you need to do is talk like an old grumpy granny and he's as pliable as dough?" Everyone else at the table looked like they had an epiphany.

Marlene turned to Lily with a dreamy expression on her face. "I love you, Lily Evans. Where have you been hiding all my life?"

James piped up as well. "So, Evans, what flowers do you like? I feel like building a shrine to you this afternoon, you know?" An "Amen" resounded through the table.

Lily just shook her head and went back to eating, but after looking up and finding a lot of eyes aimed at her, she raised her eyebrows, but sighed and relented. "Anything but lilies is fine," she said.

"What? Dear Lilyflower doesn't like lilies? What a tragedy!" Sirius teased her.

Lily actually growled. "I thought I told you not to call me Lilyflower."

Sirius grinned at her. "Well, that will teach you not to reveal my weaknesses in front of a crowd," he said, eyes mischievously twinkling.

Lily huffed. All of a sudden, she thought of something. "Hey, I remember now! Back in first period, someone said I wouldn't have the guts to be cheeky to dear Minnie, yeah? Did anyone win something?"

Marlene brightened up. "Why yes, I did! That reminds me – Black, where's my ten quid?" Sirius grumbled as he searched for money in his pockets. "Thanks a lot, Red."

Lily smiled at him saccharinely. "You're welcome," and batted her eyelashes for a good measure.

The rest of the lunch passed in a similar manner, jokes were thrown around carelessly and Lily had once again reminded herself that making friends was not part of a plan, that it was a bad idea, that she needed to isolate herself before she became too attached to these people.

The rest of the classes passed quickly and before she knew it, it was time to go home.

"Hey, Lily, do you have a car? If not, I'm sure I could drop you off somewhere," said Marlene, who had come to adore Lily through course of the day.

Lily beamed."Yeah, that'd be great. Could you show me where the library is?" she asked.

Marlene quirked her eyebrow. "Uh, sure? Why don't you show me where you live and then we'll look around for one, yeah?"

Lily's heart stopped. There was a reason she didn't tell them where she lived, she didn't want them to see her dysfunctional family. But they didn't necessarily need to go inside, did they? And Alice already knew about the shack so… "Fine by me. I live above the restaurant. You remember the address? Maple Street 5129?"

As Marlene smiled and beckoned her, Lily congratulated herself on a job well done. Perfect. This way she wouldn't have to go 'sightseeing' with her family, as they always did when moving to a new town. Oh, how she despised that. They would buy a lot of maps of the town, went somewhere they thought would be a lot of people and then asked those people to circle important spots on those maps. And let's not forget about the ever important, "Thank you so much for helping us! Oh," and at this point they were supposed to circle the place was the parlour was, "how could we forget! A new shop opened here, it's a smoothie and ice cream parlour called Delicious Frost. Please stop by and thank you again for you help!" Honestly, didn't they mind spewing out advertisements like that? More importantly, didn't they mind moving twice a year or so to open a new restaurant? Lily knew she did.

But as much as Lily hated bothering other people like that, she had always participated, since her sister Petunia had a nasty habit of not showing her the improved maps when she didn't go. "It's for your own good, you know?" she always said while smirking maliciously. "You spend barely any time with us as it is."

Of course she didn't spent time with them. All they could talk about was that bloody parlour. Where to open a new place, whether their current business was enough successful or not, what to do to make it more successful so they could open a new one, had they enough employees, how to engage Lily more in the family business, and Lily personal 'favourite' – how to blackmail/bribe Lily into learning how to cook. Really, the possibilities were endless.

With these unpleasant thought in her head, Lily was glad they reached Marlene's car - very nice shade of purple, Lily noticed – and when she settled herself on the seat, she noticed the car smelled of lavenders. As they made their way out of the parking lot, Lily started a conversation. "So, you really like your lavenders, huh?" Marlene smiled sheepishly. "Is it that obvious?" Lily rolled her eyes. "About as obvious as me being a redhead."

"Well, I like lavenders. Not as bad as Karen's favourite flowers – _sunflowers _of all things, could you believe it? We tried making her like other flowers, but she just sticks to her opinion and as a counter attack she says 'at least they're useful'." Marlene said in her defence.

"I don't know, I kinda agree with her," Lily said thoughtfully. "I love snacking on sunflower seeds, whereas what are flowers good for? They just look nice and that's about it."

Marlene seemed to take a great offence to that comment. "Flowers have plenty of uses! They make a place look more aesthetic, they cure headaches and don't forget about language of flowers!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not even going to bother with response to that language bit."

Marlene shrugged. "Suit yourself." They rode in silence for a few minutes with only radio songs for a company, before Marlene broke the silence. "All right, all right, you win! I just can't ride and not talk to someone. So, any things you like to do after school?"

Lily had a bit of a trouble answering that one. "Well, I'm a decent drawer, and I like to go running every now and then. But I have this tradition of mine, every term I sign up for a different school club. Haven't decided what I'll do this year, since I've run out of clubs. What do you do?" Lily asked Marlene.

"I'm in a co-ed football team together with James, Sirius and Karen. We're in a bit of trouble right now, at least half the team left for uni this year. You any good?" Marlene said.

"Well, I played in this girl football team once and was their star player, since those girls barely knew the rules of football," Lily reminisced with a bittersweet smile. "But I don't think I could play pro."

Marlene scoffed at that. "Pro? Please. This is just a school competition. C'mon, don't be shy, what's the harm in trying-out?"

Lily had to smile at that. That's what her mum - bless her - always used to say. "None at all."

They continued talking about their hobbies and only stopped when they reached Lily's part of the city. Luckily, Marlene showed her quite a lot of places, since she also happened to live in the area. After Marlene dropped Lily just by the library, the red-headed girl headed inside and made sure she got on friendly terms with every employee currently in the building – which in this case was Rebecca, a thirty-something self-proclaimed chocoholic - since she planned on spending a lot of time there. Once done with that, she sat down behind one of the tables and began to do her homework. When she was done, Rebecca walked up to her and announced the library was about to be closed. With a sigh, Lily packed her things, bid Rebecca goodbye and slowly trudged home.

Having prolonged the inevitable for long enough, Lily stood in front of her new home/prison for at least a minute before getting cold and opening the front door. She barely closed the door, and she already heard her sister Petunia screeching at her.

"Where on earth were you, Lily? It's half past eight! We were worried sick!" Things like this buzzed around Lily's ears before she found the room she was told would be her new bedroom, slammed the door shut and locked the door. After throwing her bag into a corner and lying on the bed, Lily felt an inexplicable urge to cry, but she swatted it aside like an annoying fly. There was nothing to cry for, Lily told herself, it was just Petunia and her usual I-am-your-surrogate-mother act. Lily had no clue why was Petunia trying to be her mother, nothing could replace her. Her mum. Freesia Evans. Oh how she missed her. Lily closed her eyes and with those troubled thoughts, she fell asleep.

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**AN: So a bit more about Lily's background. If you have any good ideas for the story, don't hesitate to share. I'm still looking for a better title, so if you have an idea, please tell me. I'll even thank you in an AN :) Don't forget to review ou your way out.**


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